A drug overdose death led to a murder charge for a Tampa woman.
After months of local law enforcement investigating, the woman faced a charge of first-degree murder after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office detectives determined she distributed a lethal combination of fentanyl and carfentanil that resulted in the death of a 36-year-old woman in Central Florida.
On October 14, 2025, deputies responded to a death investigation at a home on the 12000 block of Horseshoe Bend Drive in Lithia near Tampa after a passerby reported seeing a woman who appeared to be asleep inside a vehicle. Detectives spent months building the case, corroborating the forensic and toxicology findings, tracing the source of the narcotics back to Broaddus, and presenting the evidence for a warrant.
When deputies arrived, they found 36-year-old Katelyn Thall deceased inside the vehicle. Numerous items of drug paraphernalia and a quantity of suspected narcotics were found surrounding her.
The HCSO Opioid Overdose Investigations Section assumed the investigation after the circumstances appeared consistent with a fatal drug overdose. Detectives determined that on the evening of October 13, 2025, Thall met with 39-year-old Katrina Broaddus and obtained fentanyl from her.
The substance recovered at the scene was submitted for forensic testing and tested positive for xylazine, carfentanil, cocaine, and fentanyl. Toxicology results further determined that the level of fentanyl and carfentanil in Thall’s blood was 18 times a lethal dose.
Last month, that work resulted in an arrest warrant charging Broaddus with Murder in the First Degree Resulting from the Unlawful Distribution of a Controlled Substance. Members of the HCSO Opioid Overdose Investigations Section located and arrested Broaddus that same day at her home in Riverview.
“This is the third arrest in two weeks on this exact charge, and dealers need to hear it clearly: we are watching, we are working these cases, and we will not stop,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. “Fentanyl doesn’t discriminate, and neither will we when it comes to holding accountable the people who put it on our streets and take our neighbors’ lives.”
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